‘Farrey’ Review: Alizeh Agnihotri’s Impressive Debut Does Enough To Engross

If you looked at Farrey and thought, ‘Oh, this looks like Class’, you’d be both right and wrong. The setting for both feels similar – two kids enter an elite school where they feel out of place despite having earned their spot. One of them, the brilliant Niyati Singh (Alizeh Agnihotri) has been brought up in an orphanage by the ‘warden’ (Ronit Roy) and his wife Zoya (Juhi Babbar Soni) and the other, Akash (Sahil Mehta) works as a food delivery person to support his single mother who iron clothes for a living. 

Akash and Niyati have slightly different experiences at the school depending on the choices they make early on. For the latter, one attempt to help her classmate Chavi (Prasanna Bisht) spirals into a cheating scandal that crosses international borders and for the other, the lines between right and wrong continue to blur as the story progresses. 

Amongst the cast, Alizeh clearly stands out – partly because her character is the one that is most fleshed out and partly because of her screen presence that makes her character relatable. From walking around her affluent classmate’s (Chavi) house in awe to finally bracing for the impact of the consequences of her actions, Alizeh displays a deep understanding of Niyati. 

Farrey, considering its setting, naturally touches upon the class divide – Niyati, Akash, and the rich kids at their school live different lives; their priorities are different, the way they view money is different, and the feeling of ‘entitlement’ is different.

While Niyati and Akash view money as a means to improve their lives (and the lives of the people they love), Chavi and their classmate Prateek (Zeyn Shaw) view money as a means to shortcut success. 

However, the biggest problem with Farrey is that the theme that is almost one with its very fabric gets a superficial exploration.

The class divide is seen but rarely felt, except in some scenes. This makes some of the scenes feel dull even if the film as a whole remains gripping. And that difference feels jarring. Chavi’s issues with her more academically inclined brother overshadowing her in the eyes of her strict father are touched upon but don’t leave a lasting impact. 

That being said, the entire ensemble cast also deserves praise. As Chavi and Prateek, both Bisht and Shaw play their roles with a faux sophistication that helps the film. Bisht, especially, gets to explore more of her character than Shaw does and she does well with the time she’s given – especially in the moments where you see her mask slip and she lashes out. 

Director Soumendra Padhi brings some of his expertise (visible in his works like Jamtara) to Farrey – his understanding of morality existing between black and white and the ways in which these shifting morals can change people are visible here as well. Kudos, too, to Sahil Mehta as Akash who brings this vision to life in the way Akash transforms. 

A better look into Niyati’s own internal dilemma at being sucked into a world she never intended to enter would’ve elevated the film. 

Farrey’s setting is supposed to look like a world that feels unattainable and ostentatious to most of us and it does, thanks to Keiko Nakahara’s camerawork. The way the students’ different worlds are captured feels more intuitive than exploitative, something many films focused on economic disparity tend to do. 

The film’s shift from an innocent high-school drama to a high-stakes thriller happens quick but this shift would’ve been more effective with a better background score. There is little need for a ‘thriller’ score to be present behind kids deciding how to cheat in their exams – the fact that something that innocuous could lead to something more dangerous is what makes Farrey interesting but the hammed up score takes away from that. 

Farrey does well to keep its lens focused on its main story – there is no unnecessary drama or tension introduced between the students that could’ve potentially derailed the plot. I have no qualms about excess in content; student life, regrettably, isn’t always as heartfelt and plain as people would hope it’d be. But that is not something Farrey essentially wants to explore and that’s a good thing. 

Farrey might not have enough going for it to top the batch (Alizeh does) but it doesn’t have an embarrassing parent-teacher conference in its future.